Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, every evacuation story is different. Residents had access to different levels of public or personal support, and sometimes it came down to where they stood in a line. The government supplied air charters for residents to leave and return to the territory and, because of this, will not reimburse evacuation airfare costs. But the finer details of accessing those flights matter.

Yellowknife's evacuation day buzzed with evacuation rumors that Regular MLAs were never able to verify. By 9 a.m., multiple NGOs were told to move their clients because of the impending...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm also seeing in this capital acquisition plan points for or calls for things like dual seat firebosses, which is an aircraft. It calls for fire engine types, and looking at the summer we just had and the incredible support that we had from other places both nationally and internationally, I'm wondering if these are items that the GNWT also loans out or rents out to other places down south, or if we also send our crews south as well, looking at the support that we had here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, given the conversation we've just had now about the importance of schools in communities, the fact that we heard, you know, even during the Premier's Member's statement about how this has truly been an Assembly where we have gone from crisis to crisis to crisis, what is the intent, then, of the Department of Infrastructure what are their intentions of how to keep these very important projects moving on time and moving to a state of completion? Because to get a project like this done in five years is not timely. It's not realistic for a community...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So this project, the Mangilaluk School, will be done November 1st, 2023, in its entirety? Can that be confirmed, please.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister. I appreciate the acknowledgement that Cabinet will take some time to discuss this.

Mr. Speaker, it's one of those things where absolutely there was charter flights that were going out. But there was also other people who did help the evacuation and the reentry process by putting themselves on flights, and people did what they had to do in order to be compliant with the order in order to be safe. I acknowledge that this might in turn be a substantial cost for the government, but this is a cost that the government is much better...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know I've had numerous conversations with the Minister about this and at this point, I'm thankful that the Minister still answers my phone calls. But I'm not done having this conversation.

Mr. Speaker, I get that the government had evacuation flights. Those evacuation flights weren't available on Thursday. There was extreme environmental factors that heightened peoples' fear; and people were being told the fire's going to be here by the weekend, you need to do what you can to get out. Then they sat in those lineups, and they were not put on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I might get in trouble for this one, but I'd like to recognize Kevin Whitehead who started as a Kam Lake resident, moved to Yellowknife South, and we just got him back. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So that's great news. That's very good news. So anybody in the territory who was registered with the Red Cross, was unable to get a hotel for whatever reason, reach out to your MLA, and we can advocate on your behalf. So that's really good news.

Mr. Speaker, the last question I have is in regards to insurance deductibles. A number of residents quickly learned that insurance policies are not all built the same. Some residents had insurance deductibles waived.

Whereas others had significant, significant, insurance deductibles that they had to pay in order to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, Bill 82, Legal Profession Act, received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 30th, 2023, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review. The standing committee held a public hearing with the Minister of Justice in Yellowknife on May 10th, 2023. Through public engagement committee received submissions from the Law Society of the Northwest Territories, a private resident, the NWT Metis Nation, and Deline Gotine Government.

Committee was concerned around the topics of: Access to justice, cultural safety training...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege of being on the ground here in Yellowknife on those days when an evacuation was called. On the evening of Wednesday I can't even remember the date now August 16th, when it was called, the people who could get on a flight that night, they got themselves on a flight that night. The very next day, thousands of people lined up at Sir John waiting for flights, and if you drove out to the airport after going down and looking at the thousands of people waiting for flights, there were no planes on the ground at the airport. So people...